54} THE MARCH BROWN FLY. 



dish chocolate, striped or ribbed with pale yellow ; 

 the back is of a deeper chocolate ; the six legs are 

 dirty orange yellow ; the two whisks at the tail of 

 the colour of the wings; and its two feelers, as well 

 as the head and chest, dark. As the spring advances, 

 the whole fly becomes lighter and smaller, till the 

 body, at last, is a light reddish buff, ribbed with 

 yellow. 



They seldom appear in any considerable number 

 before the 15th of March, and from that month, until 

 the middle of April, is their season; they afterwards 

 continually lessen in number. They are nume- 

 rous in warm gloomy days, and appear in several 

 sudden flights, seldom before eleven, or after two 

 o'clock. If the water is low in their season, the 

 rise of the fish at them is truly astonishing, and is 

 then generally in the heart of the streams : it lasts 

 nearly five or six minutes at a time, and the water 

 appears agitated, as if two or three persons were 

 continually scattering in handfuls of fine gravel. 

 During this rise you can scarcely take any fish, 

 however naturally made may be your fly. Just 

 before and between the flights, is the principal 

 time : though you may sometimes succeed a little 

 during the flight, should the water be in the state 

 of clearing after a flood. They are more numerous 

 in rapid rivers than in slower currents. The great- 

 est rise we ever saw of them was on the Usk, near 

 Brecon. 



Artificial. Their wings and whisks at the tail, 



